Oftentimes semiconductor devices suffer from instabilities at their surface, resulting in a degradation in their performance, including noise characteristics. One source of such instability is the interface between the dielectric layer on the surface, i.e. the passivating glass layer of silicon dioxide, and the surface of the semiconductor body. This interface can be a source of surface states that produce noise, the value of such surface states being commonly referred to as Q.sub.ss, with representative values of 1.times.10.sup.11 to 1.times.10.sup.12 states or effective charges per square centimeter.
A second source of such instability occurs when the surface of the semiconductor has a relatively light doping of one conductivity, and the oxide layer on the surface has a relatively high number of mobile ionized impurities of either polarity. These impurities act to enhance, deplete or even invert the lightly doped semiconductor surface, thus altering the character of the surface and producing noise, drift, or channeling. For example, in a bipolar transistor with an N+ emitter diffusion in a P type base region, the P type base region, which may, for example, be made of a boron diffusion, may lose some of the boron at its surface during the oxidation layer processing since boron diffuses readily into silicon dioxide. The reduction of doping at the surface can then result in additional depletion due to positive ions or carriers in the oxide layer, for example positive sodium ions, and can even result in an inversion at the surface. Such surface depletion or inversion produces an effect commonly referred to as "channeling", where a short circuit is produced between the collector and the emitter through the base surface region.
Also, in zener diodes, the breakdown or avalanching occurs at the surface of the semiconductor body, where the peak of the impurities of the cathode diffusion region is located. Any mobile ionized impurities found in the silicon dioxide passivating layer on the surface can change the electric field distribution at the surface, resulting in a drift in the breakdown voltage.